2014 MINI Assembly Line: From Sheet Metal to Car

The process of building cars has always fascinated us, as vehicles go from raw materials like sheet metal, rubber and paint to the fully-functional cars we trust to take us to and from work, school and occasionally to the track. In this fascinating video from TestDriven, we get a look inside of BMW’s production process for the 2014 MINI Cooper, from its start as sheets of steel, through final assembly and testing.

Robotics play a significant part in the process, bending, welding and finishing metal, and dealing with the delicate and toxic painting process. Humans still handle tasks such as inspection, installing wiring and tubing, parts of the final assembly, and of course the creation, maintenance and programming of all those robots.